Bill Shorten

Minister for Financial Services & Superannuation

14 September 2010 - 1 July 2013

Double backflip by Shadow Treasurer

Joe Hockey has been pulled into line by Liberal and National colleagues after backflipping about taxing trusts twice in a 24 hour period, Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten said today.

“The red warning lights and emergency sirens have been going off in Liberal Party Headquarters since Mr Hockey sat down after his speech yesterday. The degree of apoplexy that Warren Truss and the National Party would have gone into after seeing Mr Hockey’s statements is more difficult to diagnose. Febrile is my guess.”

It should not be lost on the 660,000 Australians who use trusts that the Shadow Treasurers comments were in his prepared and published speech to the Chartered Accountants conference yesterday. After first claiming the Coalition would tax trusts, he’s now claimed that is not the case. Well, let’s go back to his published speech:

“Standardisation would also involve taxing trusts in their own right and at the same rate as companies.... That is likely to be contentious but is worthy of serious consideration.